I Blew It...

How many times during our weight loss journeys do we think this? We're faced with seemingly impossible situations and end up caving and giving in... then we think... "I blew it." But how often does it stop there? In "The Thin Commandments" Dr Stephen Gullo refers to this as the "I blew it" Syndrome. We fall down and instead of getting right back up, it turns into a spiral straight downhill. One bite, turns to a whole meal binge, which turns to a whole day, which leads to a whole week and before you know it, you're right back in your old habits and way off track. Then one day you look up and wonder how on earth you got there!

No person gets fat off of one pasta dish or a few hors d'oeuvres. What happens is though that when the "I Blew It" Syndrome kicks in we lose control... the problem is not with the food.. it's with the mindset and behavior. Dr Gullo lists the issues that arise when we let this mindset take over.

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1) Sets up an impossible tension in your life: that you have to be either perfect or a failure.
2)Lets your mental screen go blank, so you shut down everything that you've learned about food management.
3)Lets mistakes pile up, which drowns your motivation, skews your perspective, and overwhelms your willpower.
4)Destroys focus on your eating and weight control. (Studies all show that staying focused on your eating behavior is what makes you a winner.)
5)Is self-defeating. It cuts off learning from the mistake and locks you into a pattern of repeating it.
6)Only helps you learn that you're gaining weight, which is obvious.
7)Ruins your chance to cut off the mistake and keep any weight gain small and temporary
8)Keeps you from proving to yourself that you can stop and correct the error.
9)Turns a few minutes of unwise eating into something that will take days, months, or even years to make up for.
10)Paralyzes you into a mode of helplessness that lets one mistake end up becoming thousands of calories
11)Doesn't do justice to your intelligence, your life smarts.
12)Doesn't make you lose weight; it only makes you lose hope.
13)Doesn't answer the most important question of all: What went wrong in this situation and what could I do differently?"

When you feel the "I Blew It" Syndrome taking over it's time to take a step back. Physically tell yourself - "STOP IT!!!" By doing this you regain control. You remind yourself that YOU not FOOD has the power. You have control of what you put in your mouth. That bag of chips does not open itself up and pour itself down your throat. So you ate 1 handful... so what.... STOP! Get right back on track and you will succeed knowing that you have overcome a potentially very detrimental situation.

Make yourself a strategy for what to do next time you start to slip. Plan out daily menus and activities. Bordom is never a good thing on a new way of eating. Get out and get moving! You'll get your mind off of what you had wanted to do in the first place. Determine to yourself that no matter what you do or where you are, good choices will be availble. If you are going to be somewhere that you KNOW there will not be an acceptable option, eat something before hand so that you won't be tempted to give in when the opportunity comes. Even if it is not necessarily on your program or way of eating, having the mentality that you will find a way can be empowering. A good choice even when not the "best" choice is better than a bad one!

So promise me something... Promise you'll never say "I Blew It" again... you didn't blow it... just STOP.

Book Review - The Thin Commandments (PART 1)

I've been saying for quite some time that I was going to begin writing about the book I've been reading "The Thin Commandments" by Dr Stephen Gullo. So here we go. This book is one of the most powerful that I have read regarding the psychology behind permanent weight loss. As I've been reading I have had the reaction over and over and over... "well duh!! NO WONDER I HAD TROUBLE!" In reading this book I have come to learn so much about myself, my eating habits, my ups and downs, and how to conquer the self-defeating habits that have plagued me for almost 30 years!!! Paring what I have learned throught my weight loss program and this book, I know that I will have success in my maintenance.

In the book Dr Gullo goes over 10 steps he says are key to overcoming the battle of the bulge. I will cover one commandement a post and insert my own experiences and thoughts as I learn.

The First Thin Commandment: Strategy Is Stronger Than Willpower

I cannot tell you how many times this has been my downfall. The old adage, those who fail to plan, plan to fail really is true. What I never realized is that it wasn't a lack of willpower like I'd accused myself of so many times, but a lack of strategy! WOW!!! I'm not a weak person afterall! Just an unprepared one! ;) LOL How often have you been sitting at home in the evening, watching TV or doing your evening routine and gotten the dreaded "munchies." For me, this was (is) a common occurance! The reason that we have such a hard time when those episodes hit is that we have failed to plan exactly what we are going to do when they come. It will inevitably arrive. You will get hungry, you will be tempted and you will get the cravings. But the key is what you do when those moments arrive.

By developing a planned out strategy for those times you can know exactly what to do and where to go with those cravings without stressing about caving or giving in to the craving! What a load off! "The realm of food is not a big world, but a small village." It is finite. We know what those foods that we crave taste like, we also know that it just doesn't work for us. The same scenarios will continue to come up over and over, but what the difference is THIS TIME is you know better, and have developed a strategy to overcome! "...successful weight control is not about doing what is 'normal' - it's about doing what works for you. You should not be concerned about the norm - that's the preoccupation of the insecure - but about what brings you the success you deserve."

There are a few points that Dr Gullo goes over that are key to developing your strategy (I will expound on these points in later installments.... stay tuned!!):

Food History - You have your own personal patterns that you have developed over your lifetime in regards to your own trigger foods. By recognizing what your triggers are and honoring your past food history, you can develop your own personalized plan in how to deal with those foods when the temptation arises.

Food Desensitizing - Techniques that defuse cravings are a powerful tool in order to develop and maintain a strategy.

Breaking through food "baby talk" - whooo boy. I could take an entire post to talk about this one. In childhood we learned unknowingly already how to talk down to ourselves and self-defeat when it comes to food. "I've been so good... I deserve it... But it's not fair... It's my treat..." Yadda, yadda, yadda.... can you hear the whining??? I love this quote from the book "Where food is concerned, even the most mature adults often act like children - like children who want their way no matter what, blocking out the negative consequences of their eating." Come to think of it... I will dedicate an entire post to this because this is so vital in my mind and one of the key reasons that people fail to keep the weight off once they reach goal.

Containment- There is a fantastic technique that I'll talk about later that will help us turn mess ups into learning experiences so we never again have to face the "I blew it" guilt.

There are so many other good points in this one chapter - my book is turning colors from all the highlighting that I'm doing!

I'll be going over so many other points that I don't have time to go into today, but I believe this is going to be a fascinating topic to continue ongoing discussion about. I'd like to leave with this last thought.... Thin is a lifestyle, not some arbitrary number on a scale. We must remember that even though we lose the weight, we never lose the vulnerability to those foods. Sooooo work on your strategy to overcome! Remember, you don't lack willpower, just planning!